## Chapter 142 – 142. Hunting
#142. Hunting
Almost two hours had passed since arriving at the training hall.
“…Master.”
In just two hours, I was sprawled on the floor, unable to even twitch a finger.
“Isn’t this a bit too intense?”
It would have been nice if it were in a sexual way, but sadly, it wasn’t.
My whole body was drenched in sweat.
For the first hour, I exhausted my mana and inner energy at full power, and for the remaining hour, I sparred with my master.
Of course, the sparring consisted of me getting beaten one-sidedly.
I was confident in my stamina, but sparring at full power for an hour after forcibly emptying my mana and inner energy was inevitably overwhelming.
Especially against someone who was at least two levels ahead of me in physical ability and swordsmanship.
“Get up.”
“I can’t get up even if you beat me to death.”
As my master’s wooden sword rose, my body had no choice but to rise as well.
I had learned painfully in the past hour how much it hurt to be hit by my master’s wooden sword in an unguarded state.
Now, just seeing the wooden sword made my body flinch automatically.
For the record, Noel got bored of watching the training after 30 minutes, took a spot in a corner of the training hall, and fell asleep.
“Um… do you happen to be in a bad mood today?”
“…Nothing like that.”
“Considering that, your expression has been…”
Tsk, as soon as I spoke, wrinkles formed on my master’s forehead.
I decided it wasn’t worth saying any more and quietly picked up my wooden sword.
If she wanted to hide it, she should have at least hidden her drooping tail.
Of course, it wasn’t like it usually wagged or anything, but I had never seen it droop like it did today.
I heard that tails and ears were body parts that represented the emotions of beast-kin, and it seemed that was true.
“Looks like you have time to think about other things.”
“Ah.”
Thwack-
Thud, with a merciless strike, I was sprawled on the floor again.
‘…Should I just pretend to faint?’
Thanks to my master, who was sparring like she was trying to kill someone because she was so upset about something, I felt like I was going to die.
“Get up.”
“…”
***
“Ah… put the patch on gently.”
“You’re exaggerating.”
After returning home, I asked Noel to put patches on various parts of my body.
For the record, these weren’t ordinary patches sold at regular pharmacies, but patches for hunters. If an ordinary person used them, their skin would probably melt.
Throughout the sparring, I tried my best to avoid, block, and counterattack, but I couldn’t beat my master, who was genuinely engaged in the sparring.
My whole body was bruised, and even my wrist was throbbing.
‘…She didn’t seem to put much force into her swings, so why does my wrist hurt more from blocking?’
Thanks to all the training I had done, I was able to block my master’s attacks normally a few times. But even so, I felt the same amount of damage as if I had blocked them recklessly.
It was as if my wrist had been directly struck by a sword, rather than sword meeting sword.
Slap!
“Ack?!”
“All done.”
“Then don’t hit me with your hand, tell me with words…!”
“Huh? Isn’t this how it’s usually done on Earth?”
“…Where did you learn that from?”
“From ‘S-Class Hunter and Dirt-Poor Heroine’!”
“S-Class Hunter and what…?”
“S-Class Hunter and Dirt-Poor Heroine! It’s a masterpiece, how do you not know it?”
I searched it up and found out it was a drama that had recently ended.
I didn’t usually bother watching dramas, so I didn’t know.
No wonder I kept hearing noises from the living room when I was showering earlier, she was watching a drama.
“What’s it about?”
“It’s just like the title says. A dirt-poor heroine meets an S-Class hunter and her life is turned upside down. Of course, the process isn’t easy. It’s a masterpiece that depicts the mental growth of the hero and heroine as they overcome all sorts of adversities together.”
“Hmm…”
It was so predictable that it was amazing.
Still, she seemed to know a lot about it, even though she had only watched it for a short time.
‘If my situation with Choi Hye-na were made into a drama title, it would be something like “Dirt-Poor Genius Magician Hero and Heiress of a Prestigious Magical Family,” right?’
I came up with it myself, but it was a title that seemed like it would have low viewership.
“Hey, but Master. Are you going again today?”
“Where?”
“That.”
Noel pointed at the TV.
-This is a breaking news report that P.S. positive reactions were found in the bodies of the deceased city council members. The National Forensic Service is currently…
It was news about the deaths of the city council members that had been making headlines in Korea since this morning.
Other news channels were also busy reporting on what had happened last night.
Well, it was shocking enough that three city council members were murdered at the same time, but it was even more shocking that they died while having drug-fueled sex.
Moreover, it wasn’t just any ordinary drug. They had taken P.S., which is a serious crime just to possess.
On a channel showing a different screen, a press conference by the chief secretary of the Hunter Association, which had been held in the morning, was being broadcast.
-…The Hunter Association declares that it will continue to pledge strong response and cooperation for a safe society free of drugs.
I didn’t expect the association to move so quickly, but it seemed the branch manager was very angry.
This made things a little difficult. The association would inevitably try to find the person who killed the city council members.
‘Should I have just gotten rid of all the drugs when I had the chance?’
But then I realized that it wouldn’t have made much difference.
P.S. is known to cause purplish spots on the organs. Since the city council members were victims of a murder case, their bodies would be transferred to the National Forensic Service as a matter of principle.
An autopsy would be performed as needed, so even if I had cleaned up the traces of the drugs, it would have been impossible to hide the fact that they had taken P.S.
Of course, I could put the bodies in my inventory, but I felt uncomfortable with that, so I wanted to avoid it as much as possible.
Besides, there might be evidence of drugs in places I hadn’t noticed, so there was no need to dwell on things that had already happened.
“I have to go. Anyway, after I take care of two more people, I can take it easy from then on.”
“Two people?”
The Gyeonggi Province governor and the head of the urban planning bureau. After dealing with those two, I was thinking of dealing with the rest later or just leaving them alone.
So far, I had dealt with the district head, the redevelopment promotion committee chairman, a few city council members, and some hired thugs.
More people had died than expected, and the social impact was significant. Grandma Choi Young-ok had hinted that it would be dangerous to go any further and that I should refrain from doing so for the time being.
“Anyway, it doesn’t seem like there are any more guys who deserve to die.”
Most of the remaining ones had just taken bribes and turned a blind eye.
By the way, dozens of thugs died in the early hours of yesterday, but was it buried because of the city council member case?
‘…Did they bury it on purpose?’
No matter how shocking the city council member case was, there was no way that a case in which dozens of people were murdered overnight could be buried.
My guess was that the higher-ups had intentionally buried it to prevent public sentiment from being shaken by the series of murders.
“You’re going late tonight too, right?”
“I guess so?”
According to the information, the head of the urban planning bureau, who was my target for today, would be passing through the outskirts of the city late at night.
I didn’t know why he was going there at that time, but the reason given was that he was returning from a business trip.
Even though he was a high-ranking official, he was on a business trip on the weekend.
‘The business trip is just an excuse, he’s going to meet his sugar baby to avoid his wife and reporters.’
I didn’t know where a man in his mid-50s got so much energy.
He must have a lot saved up to go all the way to another province on the weekend to meet a woman.
“Hey, can we order dinner? They’re replaying it from the first episode to the last episode after the commercials!”
“…That S-Class Hunter thing you were talking about earlier?”
“Yes!”
Noel sent me a look full of anticipation.
Wasn’t today the first time she was watching the drama?
I couldn’t understand how she could get so into it already, as someone who barely watched movies, let alone dramas.
“Hing… Master…”
Noel gently hugged me and pleaded in a sweet voice.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen her ask for something so politely.
“Alright, I was going to go alone today anyway.”
“Really?! I love you, Master!”
“…”
She only calls me Master at times like this.
***
In the past, about half of the Yongin Namsa-eup area had become a ghost town where people didn’t live due to the Gate Break incident.
Near there, there is a deserted road that crosses the Jinwi River.
Because it is quite far from the Gyeongbu Expressway, it is difficult to find even passing vehicles.
In the bushes near that road, armed members of the Black Mountain Guild were lying in ambush.
“Team Leader, do you really think he’ll come here?”
“It’s true that this is a good place to commit a crime, but I heard that the chairman was murdered at his home last time?”
“I don’t think he’ll come…”
“If I were the culprit, I’d just throw a few bombs at his house.”
“Ah, there are so many mosquitoes!”
Cha Myung-jin, the team leader of the Black Mountain Guild’s 1st VIP Disposal Team, frowned at the complaints coming from all over and glared at them.
“Everyone shut up.”
The team members all closed their mouths at the murderous aura that seemed to strangle their necks.
Team Leader Cha Myung-jin was usually a man of few words, so if they didn’t listen when he did speak, he had a cruel nature that would immediately cut off the necks or limbs of even his team members.
“We are dogs. And dogs just have to follow what their master tells them to do.”
The chief of staff usually had power equivalent to the vice guild leader. Moreover, if he was now given the power of command by Guild Leader Go Tae-beom, his orders were no different from the guild leader’s orders.
“Soon, the vehicle of Ham Seok-jae, the head of the urban planning bureau, will pass through here. If he passes by without incident, we can return to the guild.”
At those words, the team members all prayed as one.
Please, let him pass by without incident.
Even though they were black hunters who killed as easily as eating, they didn’t like hunting other hunters like this.
No matter how advantageous it was to have a majority in battle, the opponent was a skilled person estimated to be in the upper ranks of B-class.
Moreover, since nothing had been revealed about his abilities, they might be the ones to die if they were unlucky.
“Um, I have a question.”
“A question?”
At that moment, there was one person who broke the silence and raised his hand.
“If the culprit appears, do we have to capture him alive no matter what?”
“Yes, but he said it doesn’t matter as long as he’s still breathing.”
“But I heard that the opponent is quite skilled, aren’t we just going to get hurt trying to capture him alive?”
It was a valid question.
The team leader was a skilled person belonging to the upper ranks of B-class, the same as the target, but the team members were all only D-class and C-class.
They were lacking in many ways to capture a skilled person in the upper ranks of B-class.
“Don’t worry about that. If necessary, we have anti-hunter capture chains… Wait a minute.”
Cha Myung-jin, who was continuing his explanation, raised his senses to the highest level at the sense of incongruity that flashed through his head for a moment.
The 1st VIP Disposal Team consists of 12 people, including himself.
But there are 13 people here in total.
The numbers don’t match.
“Hmm, you’ve even prepared anti-hunter capture chains?”
A voice he had never heard before came with a chilling murderous aura that constricted his whole body.
A dense concentration of mana quickly surrounded all sides.
“Everyone, battle stan…?”
Today is a day full of clouds.
It was so dark that it was difficult to distinguish even an inch ahead unless you were a skilled assassin.
But at the moment when the full moon revealed itself through the clouds in the wind that blew from somewhere.
Swoosh-
A graceful blue sword aura cut off the necks of the team members.
“Me?”
In that place filled with the blood and flesh of those who had been team members, a man covered in black clothes stood holding a black sword dripping with blood.
“If you’re curious, why don’t you find out for yourself?”
